Okay so first off I promise that my next review is coming. I am so caught up with trying to keep up with episodes of anime coming out, and getting ready for college. Of course this leaves me a lot of time to post in Random Shenanigans. Because I can just let my mind go without watching anything. But the review should be coming out late Friday or early Saturday.
Secondly, what I actually wanted to say was something about different types of characters in anime. Not like main characters or villain, but more like the personality types. More importantly, what I wanted to discuss was one type of character…the comic relief.
The reason I wanted to discuss it was because this is a type of character that is usually seen as annoying. Well I say that because I was once in an Anime Club meeting and we got in an argument about whether or not comic relief is necessary. It basically ended in a draw and we never brought up the topic again. But that does not matter.
What I wanted to say was about if comic relief is as annoying as many of us think it is. I mean sure you don’t want to be watching an emotional episode of Clannad and have Sunohara show up doing something stupid. That may be a little too disruptive. But other anime tend to have comic relief characters that kind of lessen the tension.
What do I mean? Well, look at it this way. Let’s take two anime that have really intense storylines, Code Geass and Death Note.
Code Geass is a show about, well terrorism, it has really intense battle scenes and a very serious plot, but believe it or not there are certain episodes that you know will not be serious ones because a certain character shows up. Well it’s more of characters because anytime the Ashford Academy Student Council shows up nothing really gets accomplished. I mean most of the time they just make really big pizzas, and they get a lot of hate for even being in the series at all. Some people do not understand why they had the characters in school at all, the story could have gone on with Lelouch as maybe a university student. But let’s face it, they’re there whether you like it or not. I honestly like the Student Council…well all of them except Nina…if you’ve seen the show you know why. I mean sure you don’t know why they are necessarily there, but they tend of dissolve the tension the series has built up. There might be an episode where a huge plot changing twist happens, but the next episode has Lelouch at Ashford cosplaying with Rivalz and Milly. It gives the audience a kind of breather period in trying to retain all of the information you’ve been given by having a lot of comedy thrown in. Sure Rivalz in a complete idiot and Milly just does whatever the heck she wants, but in a show about serious terrorism you sometimes need a break.
Death Note did kind of the same thing, but they just did what Clannad did and had one comic relief character go through all of the intense situations with the characters who were a little more serious. Touta Matsuda was basically the butt of everyone’s jokes throughout the series. I mean sometimes you felt bad for him, because it only ever happened to him, but most of the time you are too busy laughing to really care. Whether it be just bad stuff happening to him, or other characters just saying mean things about him when they don’t think he’s listening (but he actually is). In his own way, Matsuda also lessened the tension by showing that these characters were actual people. They have personalities and make fun of one another.
So all in all, I think that comic relief is necessary in anime. I mean I don’t want the comedy being shoved down my throat, but in really intense shows there does need to be a character that gives us the…well the relief that we need from the seriousness. That’s my opinion anyway.
What do you guys think? Are comic reliefs useful or just annoying? Let me know in the comments below.